Horizontal display cases can be refrigerated and enclosed with a sliding glass door for adequate display function without significant cooling loss. At night, however, it is desirable to further insulate the display case door and opening to further minimize any loss of cooling within the case. To this end, an insulated cover is placed over the door and opening. This cover may be stored at some site remote from the display case or, more preferably, can be stored inside the display case but above the path of the sliding door.
A conventional refrigerated horizontal display case with a night cover is shown in FIG. 1. Refrigerated display case 1 includes cabinet 2 having at least one top opening 21, condensing unit area 3, sliding door 4, and top section 5. Condensing unit area 3 is disposed within cabinet 2 at its lower end portion. Sliding door 4 includes transparent glass 4a, frame member 4b which surrounds glass 4a, and pull 4c which is attached at the leading edge of frame member 4b. Door 4 is dimensioned to cover opening 21 although a plurality of doors may be used in combination if desired. Top section 5 is located at the upper rear portion of cabinet 2 to accommodate sliding door 4 and night cover 6 when opening 21 is not covered. Sliding door 4 slides on rigid guide rails 7 at both sides of cabinet 2 to open and close opening 21 as shown in FIG. 2. Night cover 6 is stored within the interior of top section 5 and is supported at its edges with supporting members 8 at both sides of cabinet 2. Night cover 6 is pulled down to cover sliding door 4 when the display case is to be covered for the night.
The conventional door-and-cover arrangement is generally satisfactory until sagging occurs at the center of night cover 6 as shown by the dotted line 6a in FIG. 2. This sagging can cause problems when sliding door 4 is opened to take out refrigerated articles: the sagging portion contacts the top of sliding door 4 and obstructs the sliding movement.
Two modifications might be considered to avoid obstruction of the sliding door by the night cover. One is to add reinforcing members to stiffen night cover 6. This, however, would increase the weight of night cover 6. The other modification would be to enlarge the distance between the stored night cover and the top of sliding door 4 to account for the distance of the sagging portion. Unfortunately, this would adversely affect the external appearance of display case 1.
It would be desirable to provide a display case having a sliding door and night cover that would not interfere with each other during movement of the sliding door but would continue to operate efficiently as a night cover.